Everyone loves lists. Just for fun, here’s a (very) loosely-organized list of scholarly hoaxes, randomly generated content, and other interesting tidbits. Some of these I learned about recently, some I’ve known about for a long time.

The Sokal Affair—In 1996 the cultural studies journal Social Text published the article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” written by NYU physicist Alan Sokal. It turned out to be a hoax; Sokal was testing the rigor of the journal.

Piltdown man—A famous paleontological hoax. A skull and jawbone found in 1912 which formed the definitive link between man and apes was discovered to be a hoax in 1953. Unfortunately, this hoax is used by creationists to try to attack the theory of evolution.

snarXiv—A website made to look like the arXiv website. But all titles and abstracts are randomly generated. Think you can tell the difference? Try arXiv vs. snarXiv.

Vaccine/autism controversy—Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 article linking the MMR vaccine to autism has since been retracted by the journal that published it and by 10 of the 13 authors. Sadly, its results are still widely believed.

Naked Came the Stranger—A literary hoax. Newsday columnist Mike McGrady and his colleagues (using the pen-name Penelope Ashe) wrote an intentionally bad novel featuring no plot, but many sex scenes. They were trying make a point about literary standards and the tastes of readers. It became a best-seller.